Samsung Pay and Apple Pay are in a tight race to dominate mobile payments

Samsung Pay is being adopted a lot faster as the go-to mobile payment service than Apple Pay had when it first launched in October 2014, according to a new report from Bloomberg Business.

Samsung Pay made its debut in the US in September 2015, and has since signed up over 5 million users and has handled over $500 million in transactions over that six month period. In comparison, Apple Pay launched in October 2014, and has since only signed up about 12 million users globally. If Samsung’s number continue at its same growth rate, Samsung Pay and Apple Pay could be in a serious head-to-head battle in just a few short months.

There’s many elements that could be attributed to Samsung’s success with Samsung Pay, but much of it is clearly because of LoopPay, a startup that Samsung acquired in 2015 to use as the basis for its mobile payment technology. With the acquisition of LoopPay, Samsung is able to use a technology that is similar to that of a “magnetic-stripe card when a phone is used with a store’s physical-card reader,” Bloomberg mentioned.

This allows Samsung Pay to be adopted much faster, as it will work with older card terminals. As far as Apple Pay and Android Pay goes, they’ll work with some store terminals, but in many cases, stores have to replace their terminals with new ones for services like Android Pay and Apple Pay to work. Stores don’t have to do that with Samsung Pay, and that’s largely where Samsung Pay’s success is coming from: being widely available with very little prerequisites having to be met.

One thing’s for sure: Samsung Pay is going to be challenging Apple Pay on a much tighter from in just a few short months, but mobile payment systems still aren’t at a great point. In my cases, they’re still not as convenient or easier than just pulling out your card. Not only that, but in some regions there’s some serious restrictions on them.

Either way, it’ll be neat to see how all three mobile payments options–Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay–grow and create more competition going forward.

Brad is a tech enthusiast, writing and tinkering with all things technology since 2011. He currently bounces between the LG G3 and his beloved Moto X! His interests include reading, entrepreneurship, the gym, and of course, queso.